Diego Luna
by Daniel Robert Epstein for SuicideGirls (http://suicidegirls.com/)

Diego Luna has long been one of Mexico’s favorite actors but it wasn’t until Y tu mama también became an international hit that he started working in America. Since then he’s had some great success with the conman film Criminal and the Steven Spielberg directed The Terminal. But for his own directorial debut Luna has looked back to his native country and created a documentary about one of his heroes, the legendary Mexican boxer Julio Cèsar Chávez. The documentary is showing at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival and I got a chance to talk with Luna on his very busy first day of press about the film.

Buy tickets to see Chávez at the Tribeca Film Festival

Daniel Robert Epstein: I know [Julio Cèsar] Chávez is a legend where you grew up. Were you a big boxing fan?

Diego Luna: I was never a boxing fan but I was a Chávez fan. You cannot be unattached to a story like Chávez. It’s a guy who didn’t lose for almost 14 years. He was a champion for 11 and a half years and that story is unbelievable to me. As a kid, I remember the whole country would stop to watch him fight. The streets would be empty when he was fighting, the bars were packed, houses were packed and we were all watching the fight. There was something special with Chávez because he would step into the ring and no matter how good the other guy was, he would give it everything. So it was always very exciting with very dramatic endings. There are amazing fighters that would stay away and just punch you when they had to and knock you out. Chávez would go and get many punches to give you one. So it was very amazing to know that there was a Mexican doing so well in a country where we have so many sad stories. At that time, we were going through many problems, just one after the other. Chávez was our only thing to be proud of.

DRE: I’m sure there’s been stuff done on Chávez before, but what did you think you could bring to the documentary to make it stand out from anything that had been done on him in the past?

Luna: There have been many documentaries on TV honoring Chávez. But there was not a movie about Chávez. I wanted to do a cinematic experience about Chávez. I wanted to do something that was designed to be watched on a big screen with amazing sound. I think the images in boxing are very powerful. They stay in your mind forever. I also thought it was important because no one knows where Chávez is right now. The film starts with what’s going on in the last year and a half of his life. In Mexico, he was the best and now no one cares about what’s going on in his life. No one honors him anymore. I wanted to let every young kid know who Chávez was and every young Mexican should know that he was an amazing champion and that they should be proud of him. When I was spending time with him, I realized how interesting it is to watch a story like his. What happens when fame encounters power and what happens when the politics get involved and politicians get close to these heroes and how they use them and what happens to them afterwards.

DRE: It’s very relevant with what’s going on today.

Luna: Yes. It also is a chance to talk about a time in Mexico that was really important to everyone. It’s basically the beginning of what we are living in today with the ending of the Priista Party that was in power for more than 70 years. They lost two elections ago and that was the beginning of the end of this dictatorship that we were living in. All that happened when Chávez was at the top. It was a chance also to talk about Mexican politics and about the time where I basically became a man, when I started to have my own opinion of what was going on. I was ten when he started fighting and I was 15 when he was at his best. At that time, I was really surprised at what was going on in my country.

DRE: In the past you’ve said that when you tried to finish your movie, it seemed like everyone was against you. Why is that?

Luna: Yes, things like that the movie is screening here in New York and I don’t have the copy of the movie. All the images and sound were ready, so we were put the subtitles on. I went home, went to bed and when I came back in the morning, my subtitles were on top of my graphics and were blocking the whole image. It never stops. Finishing a film is not easy because you think you’re finished. But then for the movie to be real, wow, there’s a whole world that I didn’t know existed. Many people working on that stage and I just don’t understand how directors can go to bed. Your movie can get fucked in one night. Your whole work of three years can go wrong in one night. It’s unbelievable.

DRE: Is it just a coincidence that you’re directing a film after a year when so many of your countrymen and friends of yours, did so well?

Luna: It is a coincidence because I started this two years and a half ago. But it is not a coincidence that they are getting so much recognition. When I was doing Y tu mama también, Alfonso Cuarón used to tell me, “You’re going to be a director. You ask too many questions. You want to know everything and you’re always curious about what’s going on behind the camera.” He was right and I did feel pushed by him in a way.

DRE: I read that when you first met Alfonso, he threw you in the pool because you were being an asshole or something.

Luna: [laughs] When I was a young kid in Mexico, he was working with my father on a movie called Gaby. He threw me in the pool and my father wanted to throw his son into the pool. My father was the production designer and Alfonso was the AD [assistant director]. They were having these issues about power, which happens a lot in movies.

DRE: Have you finished the Harmony Korine movie [Mister Lonely]?

Luna: Yeah.

DRE: Was it done in a Dogme style?

Luna: No, no. Harmony shot it almost in a very old-fashioned way. When you see it, you will see that it’s very different than anything he has done before. It’s unbelievable.
What was great was that we got to do all the makeup for our characters because it is a story about look-alikes. So before we started to shoot, I went to Paris for one weekend with my suitcase and all my stuff. I put the whole Michael Jackson character on and started to dance in the streets. I made something like eight euros in an hour. It’s more than what many people get in Mexico in a day. It was an interesting experience.

DRE: Could you describe your character?

Luna: It’s a character who wants to be like Michael Jackson because he doesn’t want to be himself. It’s a guy who works as a look-alike of Michael Jackson and finds this woman who is a look-alike of Marilyn Monroe. He falls in love with her and follows her to this commune where there’s many other look-alikes living. It’s very crazy but is a beautiful story.

DRE: When Y tu mama también came out, you said it was the first film that you felt talked about your generation in Mexico. Have there been films since then that you feel that way about?

Luna: I think Alfonso’s film Children of Men talked straight to me. It talked to me really profoundly about what we are living in and where we’re heading. I think it’s the best film Alfonso has made. In it you can find many issues that matter to you and you can find many things to relate to. I love a story where the hero’s biggest weapon is a pair of shoes. It says something very important, that we can all be heroes of our own stories. We can all fix things; you just need a pair of shoes. That’s where we’re heading with the world. We’re going to have to do something. We cannot wait until somebody comes and makes it happen.

by Daniel Robert Epstein

SG Username: AndersWolleck

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/interviews/Diego+Luna/